Flight From Sorrow
by Sonic the Shapeshifter
Summary: Jose the Hedgehog was feeling depressed, lost in the darkness and feeling an emptiness inside that no one could comprehend. But when a certain shapeshifter finds him hiding in an alley, will Jose close himself off or realize what friendship really means?


_This is a story specifically written for Auramaster724. After reading his In-Progress story "You Wouldn't Understand" I knew I had to do something to make him feel better and since I had already had an idea in mind from the restless night before, I decided to write this story for him. Originally I sent it to him and wasn't going to post it here, but he said it was all right with him if I wanted to…so here you go, Jose. Now you will always have the story, as long as the internet exists you can find it._

_Jose belongs to Auramaster724, Carlee belongs to Carlee (didn't see that one comin' did ya folks?), and Calcifa, Matt, and Shelby all belong to Shelby the Hedgehog. The characters are used with permission. Amy obviously belongs to Sega. The random awestruck townspeople belong to me I suppose; but at this time I choose to unleash them upon the world!!! BE FREE, AWESTRUCK MOBIANS, BE FREE!!!_

**Flight From Sorrow**

Jose slumped against the rough, cold brick wall of the alley. _Life sucks._ The words rolled through his head as he slowly slid down, his back scraping against the brick in a way that was harsh against his thinly furred skin.

It was a sunny day, but that did nothing to improve his mood. In fact it only served to make him feel worse. "This is bullcrap!" He muttered forcefully, punching the dumpster to his side to release some of the anger he was feeling.

Shelby was gone the majority of the time nowadays…always busy taking care of everyone else. He was lucky to even talk to her for a mere five minutes. His eyes glazed over at the thought of Shelby being away from him for so long…

Meanwhile, Amy the hedgehog couldn't seem to get enough of Jose. She was absolutely friggin' EVERYWHERE, and it was driving the golden furred hedgehog completely insane! Lately he'd taken to telling her he'd just seen Sonic running "that way" and pointing in a random direction to get the pink hedgehog off his case. Nothing else seemed to work…

A strangled howl broke through his thoughts and Jose jumped up in response, his reflexes jerking him to a fighting position before he could register what was going on. The shadow of a wolf spread across the ground outside of the alley and he could hear the mobian approaching fast.

"Keith…" Jose growled and prepared to jump his nemesis, waiting for the wolf to run into the alley. Quickly he checked the cramped alley for any advantages he might have. He could triangle jump from the dumpster to the opposite wall and then into Keith for maximum damage, or just rush him head on and use a rotted wooden board to the side to knock him out. Then again, it was pretty dark in the alley since it was late afternoon and the sun was positioned so that the shadows fell into the alley. Since Keith had powers over darkness this probably wouldn't be the best place to tackle the wolf. He'd have to wrestle the wolf out into the light for a better advantage over the jerk.

Finally the shadow grew larger and the footsteps louder. Jose tensed and readied himself, deciding to triangle-jump Keith. The wolf skidded into view and dashed into the alleyway.

Jose leapt onto the dumpster, smashing a large dent into it with his feet and propelling himself off of it to execute a perfect flip on the opposite wall of the alley. His momentum having built up his power thus far, he ricocheted off the wall directly toward the wolf- only to realize at that last moment that this wolf looked nothing like Keith.

Carlee hit the breaks in the middle of the alleyway as the golden blur shot toward her and she screamed in surprise and terror. Jose slammed into her at not-quite-breakneck speed (luckily, for the both of them) and the two tumbled toward the alley entrance to a stop with Carlee pinned underneath Jose.

"What are you doing here?" Jose jerked back and away from Carlee, who lay shaking on the ground beneath him.

"Th-th-th-th-th-" Carlee stammered and pointed out of the alleyway forcefully.

Jose looked up to see a group of weasels rounding the corner into the street by the alley, carrying nets and a few of them guns. Jose couldn't help grinning darkly. He cracked his knuckles and stood up, walking toward the weasels.

"At least now I can get rid of this restlessness." He muttered.

He leaped directly into the center of the huddle of weasels with a roar, a whirlwind of punching and kicking ensuing. A few of the weasels decided to shoot at him; bad idea. Firstly he was moving too fast for them to aim accurately, so they ended up shooting other weasels. Secondly, the moment he heard a shot he turned toward the noise and attacked the weasel that fired it. The same misfortune fell upon the weasels who tried to net him, only serving to end up getting themselves entangled. In under two minutes the weasels had given up and scattered, running in different directions to escape the wrath of the furious golden hedgehog.

Jose took a moment to assess the damage done to himself; a little dirt here and there, a few places that may or may not bruise…nothing of major consequence. That was good; even though Shelby wasn't really around much any more, she'd notice it if he were bleeding anywhere or had a black eye, and he didn't feel like being chewed out today. And speaking of chewing people out…

He walked back into the alley and looked around for the wolf that had run into him. "Carlee?" A rustling noise from behind the dumpster caught his attention and he walked around the bulky green box on wheels to see the white wolf sitting on the ground beside it. Her ears seemed pinned down on the sides of her head and she seemed shaken.

"Heh…hi?" She greeted him sheepishly, holding up her hand in a two fingered peace-sign as she looked up at him.

"What the hell was that?" Jose asked, not bothering for niceties at the present moment. He was more concerned with why the weasels were after the girl in the first place. "Why were they chasing you? Did you steal one of their hats or something?"

Carlee shook her head. "They said something about money I think?" She offered, "But I was more concerned with getting away before they got me in the net…"

"I thought you could shapeshift." Jose scoffed, remembering an incident where the wolfgirl had gone dragon in a drug-induced sleep and wrecked the living room. Eventually Calcifa had repaired the damage and the room showed no signs of disrepair now. "Why didn't you just fly away or hit them or something?"

"Every time I tried to change forms, this thing shocked me…" Carlee fingered an odd metal collar fastened around her neck that Jose hadn't noticed before.

Jose blinked, then growled. Carlee's eyes flashed blue once, then dulled again and the colors swirled together in their normal pattern in response. Jose noticed and almost snapped at her for it, but remembered why she reacted the way she did and calmed down slightly, instead saying "Here, let me see if I can get it off."

Carlee swept her hair to one side and craned her neck away to let Jose examine the collar. "This might cause a jolt, don't freak out." He warned her, then raised his hand and karate-chopped a line in the band where it appeared to be clasped together. The collar split in two and fell to the ground, tiny jolts of blue electricity crackling out from it for a few seconds.

Jose stood up and then fell back against the opposite wall, sliding down to sit across from Carlee.

"Thanks…" She murmured.

"No problem." Jose muttered, staring at the bricks above Carlee's head with his arms crossed.

Carlee looked around the alley, one of her ears flipping down. "…How long have you been here?" She asked, her nose twitching as though she smelled something less-than-appealing.

"I dunno." Jose replied. He didn't feel like giving any more of an answer, but he didn't feel like snapping at her either.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

"No." Jose's ear twitched with slight annoyance and he unintentionally glanced at the entrance to the alley as though Shelby might appear there.

"Well…if you aren't waiting for anyone and have been here a while…then why are you here?"

"What is this, twenty questions?!" Jose snapped at her with a glare.

Carlee's eyes pulsed with color and her ears flattened down on her head. She looked away. "Sorry…" She murmured.

_Great. Another Amy. Just what I _need, Jose thought. He looked away, frowning.

"…Are you all right, Jose?" Carlee asked after a moment.

Jose didn't respond for a moment, thinking. "No." He finally said, "I'm not all right." He stared at a crushed soda can on the ground, meters away from the dumpster. _F****in lazy people can't walk a few steps to throw away their f****in' garbage…_ He waited for Carlee to ask it. _"What's wrong?" _That's what everyone always asked him, as if they expected him to just open up to them and tell them everything right there so they could gossip about it, as if they could ever understand.

"Can I help?"

Hmm. Well that was a different question. Jose looked at Carlee doubtfully. "And what could you do? Other than nearly get trapped and sold to some wacko and end up having to be saved?" He couldn't help adding the bitter words in, but he admitted to himself that the question came out more harshly than he'd intended.

"I'm no Shelby, I don't know kick-ash karate and I can't fight worth a darn—at least in this form," Carlee admitted, "But I can do other things…"

"Like what?" Jose asked, raising an eyebrow.

Carlee transformed into a pearl colored dragon in the middle of the alley, about the size of the dumpster beside her. She moved back a few steps as the change completed so she wouldn't destroy anything.

"AW, CRAP!" Jose jumped up and away from Carlee, taking a battle stance, "NOT AGAIN!!!"

Carlee looked down at him and snorted, bemused. "I'm not going to hurt you." She said, blinking calmly.

"Then why the dragon-ness?!" Jose nearly shouted, his eyes wide and his quills pointing out on end.

Carlee lowered her head to the ground and her wings to her sides. "Get on." She said simply.

"Excuse me?" Jose's jaw about dropped, "You want me to do _what?_"

"Just do it." Carlee grinned slightly, her eyes drooping as she watched Jose.

Jose skirted around Carlee's head and tentatively placed his hands on her back, at the base of her neck.

"I won't bite, I promise." Carlee's grin seemed to grow, only serving to show more of her teeth.

"Not funny." Jose muttered, swinging himself onto the dragon's back and holding onto a spike on her neck to keep his balance.

"Hold on tight." Carlee carefully stood up, her tail flicking in anticipation.

Jose gripped the spike firmly as Carlee began walking out of the alley, her wings at her side. "What the heck are you planning to do…?" He asked, thinking to himself, _Oh, this can't be good…_

"Well, seeing as you don't have wings I figured you've never been off the ground before, right?" Carlee walked faster, coming out of the darkness of the alley and into the sunlight. She turned west and began galloping down the street, increasing her speed.

"What?! Oh, hell no!" Jose tightened his hold on the spike, looking for a good point to jump off of Carlee's back. She was running at a fast speed though, and if he jumped he'd probably end up breaking something in the fall and roll that would ensue.

Carlee's wings suddenly shot open from her sides, surprising Jose. "Carlee, NO!!!" He shouted as she flapped once, then twice.

"HOLD ON TIGHT, JOSE!" Carlee roared back to him, the wind whistling in her ears. She ran faster and faster as she flapped her wings until her claws just raked the pavement. A few people had accumulated in the street, running outside as the white dragon streaked past the various shops and centers. They pointed and ran after her and Jose, yelling in excitement.

Jose clenched his legs tightly around the sides of Carlee's neck so he wouldn't fall off as he used one hand to facepalm. "YOU'RE CRAZY!"

"I KNOW!" Carlee happily agreed, her wings flapping steadily.

The voices of the amazed Mobians faded out suddenly and Jose opened his eyes to see blue sky around him. He looked down at the world below for a split second and yowled.

"GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!!!" He screeched at Carlee, falling forward and wrapping his arms around her neck so he wouldn't fall off.

"Relax, Jose. You're not gonna fall and if you did I'd catch you." Carlee replied easily, gliding through the air lazily.

Jose clenched his eyes shut stubbornly. "I want to be back on land, NOW!" He commanded, gripping Carlee's throat strongly.

The movement didn't seem to bother the dragon; probably the protective scales were keeping her safe from the effects of the squeeze. "You don't recognize the good things around you…do you, Jose?" She murmured, her eyes half closed as she breezed through the sky slowly, "Open your eyes and look around you. Don't worry about falling; like I said, I'll catch you if you do. If it freaks you out too much to look down, then just look around you at the clouds."

Jose tentatively opened one eye, peering over the side of Carlee's neck at the countryside below. Already they were outside city limits, he noticed. He blinked and opened both eyes, craning his neck over to look at the scenery below. A river meandered through the grassy fields, and a few cabins were built nearby. A herd of cows were grazing at the river's side, mooing pleasantries to each other. Jose looked to his right, on the other side of Carlee's neck. A large forest was there, the leaves of the mighty trees rustling in the wind. There was also a small mountain up ahead.

Jose released his tight grip on Carlee's neck-scales and sat up, sliding his hands back to rest against the spike (which surprisingly hadn't pierced his stomach when he'd flopped forward onto Carlee's neck moments before) and looked at the clouds around him. He reached out to touch one as Carlee flew by it, wondering if it would feel as soft as he'd always imagined it would be. Carlee looked back slightly as he did and saw what he was doing. She banked left, flying straight through the cloud.

Jose released the spike and spread his arms out to the sides, touching the cloud and closing his eyes. Carlee burst through the other side with a laugh as Jose shook his head to get the condensation off his quills. The golden hedgehog shivered a little. "Pretty cold…" He murmured, smiling slightly.

"Sorry."

"Nah…" Jose cut in over the apology, "It's all right…I don't really mind." He was surprised that the words were true.

The sun had dipped lower in the sky by this time, changing the sky's color from light blue to a spectrum of bright colors that melted into each other in an almost magical way. Carlee started to fly toward the mountain, gliding on an updraft.

"Where are we going?" Jose asked.

"One of my favorite places on Mobius." Carlee responded warmly, her voice rising slightly in pitch as she smiled.

"You just got here," Jose objected, "How could you possibly have visited somewhere here already?"

"Same way as Shelby," Carlee looked back at Jose with a playful grin, "Before traveling here I'd already read the comics and played the games as a Sonic fan, not to mention all the cartoons they had of it."

"Oh, right…" Jose grinned sheepishly. He immediately wiped the smile off his face but it was too late; Carlee had already seen it.

"About time you loosened up!" She exclaimed gleefully.

"I'm not- uh, I mean, I am?" Jose spluttered.

Carlee laughed. "Hang on, Jose!" She warned, a sparkle in her eyes.

Jose leaned forward and hugged his arms around Carlee's neck. The pearl dragon dived down in a spiral, wind whipping around her wings and through Jose's quills and giving each adrenaline rushes. Jose yelled at first, but as the adrenaline coursed through his veins his howls of fear turned to howls of excitement. Carlee pulled up from the spiral and did a loop-de loop in the air. Jose fell off at the height of the loop, but Carlee swooped under him and he landed in the same place he'd fallen from the moment before. Jose clutched the spike at the base of Carlee's neck and grinned.

"Dude, that's an intense rush!" He yelled.

Carlee flew up the side of the mountain, parallel to it. "What'd you say? I can't hear you!" She yelled back with a grin.

"I said, THAT'S AN INTENSE RUSH!!!" He yelled louder as Carlee stretched out her claws to rake the side of the mountain, running up its side and flying up it at the same time.

"YOU BET IT IS!!!" Carlee yelled back, "WAIT'LL YOU SEE THIS!!!"

Jose clung to the spike as Carlee raced up the mountain, higher and higher into the sky of many colors. The sun began to sink beyond the horizon. The closer she got to the top, the more Jose imagined he could see something sparkling just in the distance.

Carlee broke through one last cloud and soared high above the mountain, spreading her wings and hanging suspended in the air. Jose realized that he wasn't just imagining the sparkling in the sky; through the beautiful array of colors, stars were sparkling as day turned to night. He stared, amazed.

Carlee leveled herself in the air, and Jose looked down to see what lay at the mountain's peak. The top of the mountain was concave, almost as though what lay inside it had a solid shell of earth (or Mobius, in this case) around it—like a clay bowl. A waterfall lay North of it, the water running down into a large pool and spilling over its edge and down the mountain, creating the river that Jose had seen earlier. The sapphire-blue pool of water reflected the sky, making it seem as though the rainbow sky above had condensed into a lake of stars.

"…Whoa…" He murmured, blinking slowly at the sight and drinking it in.

"Hold your breath, it gets better." Carlee murmured back, flapping her wings softly to stay aloft.

The lake of stars was surrounded by a small grassy field that circled around it perfectly. Many white dots spread around the green grass. As the sun dipped behind the horizon, the dots seemed to expand. They weren't dots at all—they were flower buds. Pollen burst in the air as the buds opened all at once, hovering in the air around the pool in a yellow haze. Fireflies fluttered in the air almost directly afterward, making it seem more like a display of magic than a typical show of nature.

Jose didn't know what to say. The sky began to grow dark, and Carlee looked back at Jose.

"The flowers bloom every night at this time. I like to come here when I feel depressed. If I can't make it because I'm too far away…I just imagine myself there. And how wonderful it would be if I could make it." Carlee closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again, "I've never been able to bring anyone here before. They're always either preoccupied or unwilling to get in the air with me."

Jose nodded. "I'm glad you brought me here." He replied, looking directly in Carlee's eyes as he said it, "And what'd I tell you? Meeting me in a dark alley wasn't so bad after all, was it?"

Carlee blinked at him, then laughed. Jose joined in, laughing at the day he'd had. Finally they calmed down enough for Carlee to talk again.

"We should probably get back." Carlee said as the sky above her grew dark purple.

"Yeah…" Jose said, a depressed tone creeping into his voice.

"Hey, none of that now," Carlee said as she turned and flew back toward the city, bumping Jose with her wings on purpose, "I'm here for you and always will be, and everyone else is too. Cheer up."

"It's not that easy…" Jose started, his ears flipping downward.

"Listen Jose," Carlee replied, "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's this…for every bad thing that happens, something equally good is sure to follow right after it. No matter how bad things get, I always keep that in mind. It gives me hope and keeps me going. Remember that. No matter how bad you may feel right now, I can promise you that in the near future something really good is sure to follow."

Jose leaned back and didn't respond, thinking about the statement. Carlee passed over the city to its outskirts, eventually coming to Shelby's house. She glided down to the ground in front of the house, touching down softly on the grass.

She laid herself down on the ground, letting Jose slide off. The feeling of the soil beneath his feet felt strange after being in the air for so long. Carlee changed forms, pulling her jacket back on as she returned to her mobian wolf form. Jose wondered where she'd kept the jacket during the flight, realizing he'd never seen her take it off or put it anywhere. He decided not to ask.

Carlee brushed herself off and stretched with a groan, rubbing her shoulders. "It's always a strain on my muscles to stay in the air for so long. I'll probably be sore for the next few days so no more free rides for a while." She teased, grinning at Jose.

_Maybe wolves aren't so bad…_ "Carlee?" Jose asked.

"Yeah?" Carlee's ears pricked toward Jose.

"…Thanks." Jose said.

"Ah, any time." The wolfess winked at him, "Anything for a friend, as Shelby would put it."

"Jose?" A third voice called.

"Speak of the devil…" Carlee murmured, nodding her head toward the house.

Jose turned to see Shelby standing at the door. Light streamed outside from within; night had finally fallen.

"Shelby?" Jose asked.

"Where've you been? I've been looking all over for you!" Shelby chastised the other hedgehog, wagging a finger at him, "Your dinner's cold and Matt keeps looking at it like he wants to eat it…"

"Correction: Has eaten it." A second voice called from inside the house.

"MATT!!!" Shelby yelled inside angry.

"Sorry I took so long," Jose said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "I was just out for a while with-"

Carlee was nowhere to be seen. Jose blinked and looked out through the darkness, peering into the trees to see if he could spot the white wolf in the darkness.

"Well c'mon, Jose, what're you waiting for?" Shelby called, her hands on her hips, "I'll get started on making you something for dinner again since some people can't keep their hands off others' food…" She directed the last part more toward the house's occupants than to Jose.

A burp resounded from inside. Jose grimaced.

"Don't worry about it Shelby, I was late so I'll take care of it myself…" He said, walking in toward the house resignedly.

The door closed behind the two hedgehogs, shutting down the house for the night from outsiders. Carlee peered around from behind a tree near the edge of the forest and then swirled around beside it, looking in toward the house with attentive ears. Her eyes seemed to glaze over for some reason.

A pair of angel wings sprouted from her back and she turned away from the house, leaping into the air and flying into the night.


End file.
